LNG:
Your sauce to me looks a bit thicker than I normally would serve--I like it slightly "pourable" like from a ladle.
Its a matter of preference of course, and yours turned out fine. But in case anyone doesn't know, here's a tip about making cream sauces, and also things like Veloutes. I.E., gravies. You generally want to cook it to a bit
thinner than you actually want to serve it.
Because when you take it off the heat and start cooling it, it gets thicker. This just takes a little practice with whatever sauce you're making. Its especially pronounced with flour based projects, like Biscuits and Gravy.
Its also worth noting that your sauce ended quite thick, despite you having used half and half. As I said, it might take a bit longer, but you've certainly proved it can be successfully substituted!
Further worth mentioning, is your use of salt. Being as this is largely comprised of caramelized Sherry and cream, the result is a slightly sweet, rich sauce. My recipe is very basic however, and before the sauce is done, things can certainly be added to modify flavor--salt, white pepper, nutmeg, etc. In the initial reduction phase, the vinegar is not needed, but its presence is to offset that very sweetness and give the sauce a more complex "sweet-and sour" flavor.
Morning glory:
Your sauce turned out gorgeous. And trust me, very professional.
You obviously have a flair for taking food pics. I love the step by step pics--they can teach someone to make this sauce as good as any cookbook. I always wanted to take pics of things I made, but in the pro environment you just never have time. I even had someone come in once to take them for me while I was concocting.... but they just ended up getting in my way. lol
The creamy texture in yours is very rewarding after straining out the shallots, worth the effort. I've made it both ways, but prefer them to stay in. About that, you're absolutely right in straining them early. If you wait to long, that sticky reduction will be partially lost to the strainer device--not much, but that syrup is so packed with concentrated flavor you dont want to lose one tasty molecule of it. Besides, it only takes a couple of minutes of simmering to extract most of the flavor from the shallots, so at that point they wont "be missed" anyway. I will say, that you ended up with more syrup than I would have expected, for halving the recipe.
I stirred frequently to amalgamate the caramelised parts into the cream.
Yes I probably forgot to mention in my recipe that while you don't need to stir constantly, you do need to stir every few minutes, to incorporate that delicious brown flavor component back in.
Regarding the pan...its doesn't really matter, you used a saucepan it turned out fine.
I used a small wok type non stick pan in the B.Room. I will say however that 18 minutes is a long reduction time,
and if you guys ever find yourselves in a pinch to make this or any other reduction sauce in a short time, use a shallow
pan, like a 12 inch saute pan. The science is that, the greater surface area its spread over, the faster the reduction.
With such a pan, and doing the half version you made, I could do that Sherry shallot reduction in 3 to 4 minutes over medium to high heat, stirring a lot to keep the surface agitated.
All in all, excellent job guys!
.
